Rock Creek

July 20, 2010, 8:25 pm

It’s hard to beat the beauty of a day hike along Rock Creek with a number of lakes along the way and a backdrop of rocky peaks and snow fields. Starting from the Mosquito Flats trailhead (10,300 ft elevation) at the end of Rock Creek Road (turn off from highway 395 at Tom’s Place), the wide trail gently ascends Rock Creek, passing more than half a dozen picturesque lakes.

Heart Lake, looking toward Morgan Pass

Karen was feeling better than yesterday, so we hiked fairly steadily up to Gem Lakes, near the start of the last climb up to Morgan Pass (11,120 ft). We had climbed up there last year, and didn’t see any reason to repeat this year. At Gem Lake we found a comfortable rock, tried to ignore the mosquitos, and had lunch. Returning back down the trail, we logged 7 miles. We were both pretty tired out. I don’t think we’ve recovered from the virus that’s been bugging us for a week or so.

On our return and drive back to highway 395 I tried to talk Karen into stopping at Pie in the Sky, but she remains skeptical of cafe pies.